Iberia threatened with more strikes

12 November 2009

Unions representing Spanish airline Iberia’s cabin crew have revealed they will stage eight more days of strikes unless a pay agreement is reached.

The dates for the proposed strikes are 30th November to 2nd December, and 14th December to 18th December, which will cause major disruption. The airline has already been forced to ground hundreds of flights this week due to strikes.

The two main unions representing Iberia cabin crew are CTA and SITCPLA. The Sitcpla union said in a statement. “We have called for eight more days because there is no will to reach an agreement,”

“Our wages have been frozen since 2005 and, according to the company’s viability plan, this will continue until 2011.”

Iberia, which is in merger talks with British Airways, plans a hiring freeze, a company-wide wage freeze in 2010 and 2011, lay-offs of all cabin attendants older than 55 and additional savings of up to 37 million euros (55.4 million dollars) a year in overhead costs in 2011 and 2012.

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Iberia wants to reduce costs to combat falling profit. The company made a loss of 165.4m euros ($237.2m; £145.7m) in the first half of the year.

Iberia has offered passengers a changed ticket or a refund for those effected by this weeks action.